This is the second album from Morgul Blade, they are traditional epic blackened metal crusaders who recall tales of fantasy driven inspiration and I must say, always have great artwork!
Progressing from their debut ‘Fell Sorcery Abounds’, the blades lose more of that epic metal tag, and add much heavier sinister leanings in their music more in the style of melodic black metal. This is more so noticeable on a track like ‘Frostwyrm Cavalry’. However, you do get some confusion as the mix is quite quick in the transitions that occur. ‘Eagle Strike’ starts the release with some metal goodness, there are some nice melodic pieces and I like the organic drum tone, the vocals are confusing and not what you would normally expect, but if you know this band, you know to expect the non-expected. The track then engages into melodic death circles, then back again. You may wonder am I confused, nope, this is this band. ‘Spider God’ is a blackened monster, some tell tales stark and harsh riffing, the vocals suit this style so much more. Then pace changes, the other traditional metal pieces come through, then we pick up the speed again, before ending in marching glory. ‘Beneath the Black Sails’ starts with a bass line that may remind you of Van Halen, the guitar riff of Leatherwolf and the vocals of In Flames locking with Dissection. It sounds crazy yeah? It’s fun, it did take me a couple of goes to accept the different flavours of influence all packed into one release. I would say use a really good sound system or headphones, you can lose the vocals in some of the mix.
‘Heavy Metal Wraiths’ brings out the clashing metal sounds, literally. The drums again, I love this sound. The song itself is relatively over before it’s begun. ‘Razor Sharp’ has furthermore Dissection duels with power metal bands, this probably would have occurred if others were still with us! I do like the intention and style, but as I mentioned earlier, these vocals get lost in the mix and having witnessed “heavier” bands at Keep It True festival for example over the last 20 odd years, the sound crew may find this a challenging mix. Note: Their release coincides with their appearance here at this classic metal juggernaut, hence the mention! The same pattern continues with ‘Neither Cross Nor Crown’, this starts out very classy and this will be a fist raising live track for sure.
I enjoyed this album, it did take a few listens to get into it after the confusion, as there is a different to their debut in my mind. This is a solid release, which can travel far.
(7.5/10 Paul Maddison)
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